Saturday, April 30, 2011

So Mommy Dearest starts with two guys leaving a bar and running into Eve, the Mother of All, in a bloody white dress. One of them says, “Heaven must be missing an angel.” Umm, he’d be a tool just for saying that, but who says that to a woman covered in blood? Eve caresses his cheek and we see black webs crackle across his skin and then disappear.

She then steps into the pub, bars the door and starts contaminating people with her evil touch. Carnage ensues as the infected attack the “untouched.”

Meanwhile, Dean is making a handful of shotgun shells with the Phoenix ash. He’s grows worried about their effectiveness after accidentally discovering the soot has no affect on him. Now that they’re armed, they have to find Eve. The boys have no way of tracking her and she’s hidden from Cass so they decide their best shot is finding something with “claws and sympathy.” Their good monster turns out to be Lenore, the vegetarian vampire from Season 2’s Bloodlust. She confesses she’s been fighting a losing battle against Eve’s siren’s call. In fact, Lenore’s nest turned bad. The boys mange to persuade her to reveal Eve’s location, but she asks that they kill her in return. As Dean and Sam hem and haw excuses, Cass dispatches her without a blink of hesitation and then zaps the boys and Bobby to Grant’s Pass, Oregon. (Angel boy gets less and less angelic.)

“I was expecting more Zombieland, less Pleasantville.” – Dean

They arrive in a small, seemingly sweet town and quickly learn Cass has been rendered powerless, which gives us my two favorite lines of the night, both delivered by Dean. “Mom is making you limp” and “Without your power you’re basically just a baby in a trench coat.”

Bobby does some research on an I-Pad to his consternation and discovers a Dr. Silver called the CDC about an illness he couldn’t identify. At the doc’s office to treat Cass’s “painful, burning sensation” they find the doctor’s gone AWOL and the ill patient is dead and oozey in the nearby shed.

The four musketeers head to the patient’s house to see if they can learn anything more. They see his “twin” at the window. Sam and Dean find five more of the same guy inside the house, all dead! WTF, is this an evil version of Multiplicity? The guy they saw at the window is barely alive. My advice? Stay away from the bleeding, coughing guy. You don’t know if he’s contagious! But noooo, they’ve got to talk to him. The guys figure out Eve’s responsible and poor Marshall croaks. Which just doesn’t make sense. If Eve is making some kind of army why would she make them sick, dying and gooey?

“I’m bathing in Purell tonight.” --Dean

The supernatural squad heads over to the bar where it all began and finds complete carnage inside. Now why wouldn’t the Sherriff know about this? Dean examines one of the bodies and finds it has vamp teeth, but the spike of a wraith. Say what? Eve’s making hybrids. Bobby tells Dean he can name the new species since he discovered it. Dean decides to call them Jefferson Starships. “Because they’re horrible and hard to kill.” A closer look shows the starships burned up, like they died from a fever.

Ah, here comes that stupid sheriff. Of course, he’s there to arrest the boys for the carnage. Fortunately, Dean hides and follows them. At the station Sam see the cops are actually starships. They kill all but one, hoping they can get some answers out of him.

They also find Dr. Silvers’ sons bound and gagged in a cell. Poor Joe and Ryan are orphans and the cute little one won’t talk. Sam and Dean see themselves in these two boys and want to safely deliver them to their uncles. Cass is pissed that they’re leaving. He wants Dean to serve the greater purpose and find Eve.

Bobby tells Cass to get over it and suggests they go poke that pig until he squeals. Bobby does his best to torture a little cooperation out of the guy, but he holds tough. Finally Cass tells him he wants five minutes alone with the guy. Bobby asks what he could possibly do without powers. We never do learn the answer to that but we hear a scream, Cass returns with his hands covered in blood and he’s got the answer they need. This dark, unsympathetic Cass is disturbing and scary. Not only has he lost his humanity, he no longer seems to care about doing what’s right in the religious sense of things.

They all head back to Ervin’s diner, the first place they went when they arrived in town. Sam wonders why she ever let them in or out. Sam and Dean intend to walk into the restaurant to draw her out. If they fail, then Bobby and Cass will still have their ash bullets. Inside, the brothers are scared to learn everyone in the diner is a starship. Just as they’re getting ready to bail the waitress, Eve, tells them to stay put. She then disarms them. Damn, so much for the phoenix bullets.

But it turns out she doesn’t want to hurt them. Even more surprising, she doesn’t want the planet destroyed. She felt she had no choice because the natural order was disturbed. Her children were being kidnapped and tortured and a mother defends her kids. To gives some punch to her message she morphs into their mom. Seems the person she wants dead is Crowley. That’s right, he’s not dead! And he’s the one hurting her babies. He’s using them to collect souls, because they’re like super fuel. He’d be all powerful with all those souls. So she’s turning everyone into her children to fight back. Her “beta tests” failed, but eventually she got it right….in little Ryan. Dirty pool! Now, we know why he didn’t speak. And the bad seed turned his brother, then killed his uncle. Wow! The 2.0 version of her infector was really clever, especially when you consider that they tested the kids.

“Beat me with a wire hanger, the answer is still no.” -- Dean

Eve wants the boys to deliver Crowley to her. In return she’ll let them live. She’ll even let Bobby and Cass, who’ve been hauled into the diner, live. Dean refuses so she threatens to turn them. Still Dean continues to bait her. Um, has he lost his ever-loving mind? He finally tells her to bite him and she does. Aaaah! Wait, she’s coughing. OMG, he fricking drank down the ash with some whiskey. She oozes to death in a most awesome way. The starships start to attack and Cass blazes them with light then heals Dean. Yay-ya!

To Cass’s disgust Dean insists on going to find Ryan. At the uncle’s house they find they’ve been ganked by demons. Cass takes off, telling the boys he’ll find Crowley. As Sam, Bobby and Dean discuss how on Earth Crowley could’ve survived, Bobby wonders if Cass let Crowley go on purpose. Dean is stunned by the accusation, but Sam is obviously following Bobby’s train of thought. I’m afraid they might be right. And, yup, they are. Cass and Crowley meet up at the diner where Crowley asks how many times he’ll have to clean up Cass’ mess. Holy cannoli. What does this mean? I thought at first Cass might be genuinely evil, but the previews show him questioning what he’s doing. That at least leaves me with hope and a whole lotta questions. Overall, great episode. I think we’re on the fast train to the finale now. I don’t expect to see a lot of levity, like last week’s show, but that’s okay as long as they have this kind of balance between humor and dark within the episode. I just ask that they keep the damn wall up in Sammy’s head because I like the brothers relationship as is. What did you think of Mommy Dearest?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

So Supernatural has officially been renewed! What's on your wishlist for the new season? Several times in SPN, the show seems to be about one thing but moves in another direction, which is good and unexpected, but how about something familiar? What about a Bermuda Triangle episode? Or Atlantis?

What about a musical episode? That could be hilarious. Or a several episode romantic arc for Sam.

Can we have more about the heavenly weapons, the objects from the Bible? I was really hoping we'd have more of that this season. I'm done with alternate universes and time travel, though. How about you?

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Here's the first link I saw with the full press release, but Creation Entertainment gets credit for getting to me first. :)

So what does everyone think? I know there will probably be much of the same debate as last season, especially because season 6 hasn't had the cohesiveness of past seasons. But I, for one, am just glad we don't have to say goodbye to the boys yet. :) And that we won't have a massive cliffhanger with no resolution. And I think this year has some of the best acting and writing of all the seasons, so I do look forward to one more!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Warning: I did not do a cool "as I watched" recap like the others do, so this is a fairly random stream of my thoughts on tonight's episode.

I'll start with the things I didn't like, because they are few.

No, wait. I'll start with OMG, Dean in a hat.

Also?

Sam in a hat.

Yum. Mee.

Best Line of the Episode:
"I didn't get a soulonoscopy for nothin'."
Oh, wait, I was doing the things I didn't like. Okay, first, why didn't we get to see Sam racing across the plain on horseback? You know, that photo over his desk in "The French Mistake"? I wanted to see that galloping live. *sigh*

While Number One swooned repeatedly over all the Back to the Future homages, I found it a little hard to buy that Sam would have had Bobby's address in his phone. It was a plausible explanation for how Samuel Colt found him, but these guys have spent half their lives trying not to be found.

Okay, that's it. That's all I didn't like. Unless you count the saloon girl's mouth, and the authenticity was so fantastic, I can't not like it, disgusting as it was. :)

So, what did I like?

Soooooo much. I have to admit, I've had this fantasy where Castiel gets wounded with an angel sword, with his grace all exposed, and he comes to me to heal him, because I'm the only one who can. My heart beat a little faster at that scene. :)

Poor, beaten-down Cas. I'm kind of hoping they get The Mother taken care of tout suite and address this war in heaven in the last episodes, because man, I'm dying 1) to know what Castiel has been doing, and 2) for the boys to finally step up and HELP him. I want major sacrifices, guys, no holding back. After everything Cas has done for you, the least you can do it throw yourselves into his war and save him.

Speaking of which, I loved how Bobby didn't hesitate when it came to letting Cas touch his soul. Granted, that was actually minor compared to other things he's faced, but still.

Let me backtrack a little. There were a few threads to follow in this episode. (I love it when they do that!)

First, there's the Mother thing. Bobby and the Idjits break into the Campbell's hidden stash of research materials, looking for something about how to kill The Mother. They find reference to the ashes of a phoenix doing the trick, but come on, how do you kill something that is reborn immediately every time it dies? Dean geeks out when he finds Samuel Colt's original journal, which contains a note that "the gun killed a phoenix today." (As a word geek, I love how that's written!)

Which brings me to thread 2, the return of Samuel Colt and The Colt. Everything looped so awesomely here. Colt was building the railroads around the Devil's Gate. Elkins was the bartender in the town where Dean dropped the Very Special Gun, which explains how the later Elkins had it in 1973 and 2006. I wonder if he knew how special it was—like, he was watching from the saloon and saw this unkillable thing die—and kept it safe. I loved the portrayal of Colt himself. A tired, unflinching, seen-it-all tough guy is exactly what I would have expected.

Castiel's war is another thread. I got the impression, when reading about Rachel's casting, that she was a bigger character, but she didn't last long. When we first see her, she's vociferously protective of Cas, and I agreed wholeheartedly with her assessment of the boys' expectations of Cas. Later, she's a disillusioned lieutenant who turns on her leader when she learns he's doing...something despicable. Whoa, Cas, what are you UP to, anyway?

Plenty of humor in this episode. I love, love, love the easiness the brothers have with each other. I know we've said this before, but they have a comfort level that harks back to the early days, but it's tenfold because there's finally no tension between them. (Oh, yikes, I just remembered that wall in Sam's head that's destined to come down...) I can't wait to watch the season all the way through again, with no breaks. I know I'll be marveling at the acting, at the difference in hardness and coldness versus charm and ease.

Dean was such a nerd about the Westerns. Okay, this is the first we've ever heard of his obsession, but it does fit in with his late-night movie watching habit. He was pretty adorable. And hot in his "authentic" clothing, once he got rid of the ill-fitting, silly stuff.

Then there was the monster-of-the-week element. We have undertones of the typical "is he a monster, or is he just living his life and humanity is the monster?" The phoenix's wife was nearly raped and then murdered by the deputy, and the phoenix himself (Elias, I think) hanged for her murder. Now, when he told the story to Sheriff Dean, it sounded like the previous sheriff and judge had misinterpreted the situation, or took the deputy at his lying word, but when the sheriff apologized to Elias before being smoked, that seemed to imply they railroaded him to protect their guy. Elias murdered three people, and after what he'd been through, what would stop him from murdering others? An interesting question is if Dean would have had more compunction about killing Elias if he hadn't needed his ashes. Oh, and if Elias wasn't shooting at him. That was good incentive. :)

I was a little shocked and dismayed when they got flashed back to the present without the ashes. All that effort, Cas and Bobby risking themselves, for naught! And then Colt getting them the ashes anyway. He had to be curious about whether the gun worked on the phoenix and followed Sam back to town. I wonder how he felt about his revolver going missing, especially when the demons were still after him. Hey, how about a few webisodes featuring Colt? I'd love to find out some of his story!

So...your turn! What did I forget? What did you like or not like about the episode?

Saturday, April 16, 2011

THE SHOW IS BACK! I haven’t been this excited about an episode in a long time, y’all. Interesting that the title is “My Heart Will Go On” and it’s the 99th anniversary of the Titanic. I wonder if that's why they extended hellatus another week.

THEN shows us some of the hunters we’ve lost over the past couple of seasons—Jo, Ellen and Rufus, then talks about the angel rebellion.

The first scene is like one of those Rube-Goldberg machines, just like that OK Go video, only with a lot more blood. EWW! Who was that guy, and why do we care?

It’s funny to see Bobby’s house after seeing it in The French Mistake as a set. Turns out Bobby hasn’t slept for days after killing Rufus when he was possessed. The brothers decide to take him out of the house on a job, where three members who are blood relatives have all died freaky deaths, including the guy in the first scene. They suspect a curse. Bobby kicked them out of the house to go on the job.

The brothers get into a Mustang (where’s the Impala?) that has the Impala’s old license plates from the first season, and ask if they shouldn’t wait until “SHE” gets here. “SHE” turns out to be Ellen, who’s been gone a week hunting with Jo. What did I miss here? She kisses Bobby’s cheek and when he calls her a pain in the ass, she says that’s why he married her.

What is going on?

New scene shows the brothers being all X-Files in the garage, looking for clues about the man in the first scene’s death. They find gold, which alarms them. Sam goes to check family records and sends Dean to talk to next of kin. Dean talks to a cousin under the guise of doing geneaology research, trying to find the source of a curse. He doesn’t cover himself very well.

The next scene is a travel agent, and while she’s talking, the scene pauses. A blonde walks on, steals the woman’s keys and sets them on the floor by the copy machine. She reaches to pick them up and knocks over a vase of water, which falls on the machine, shorting it out. While the woman tries to stop it, her scarf is caught in the feeder and she’s strangled. The blonde returns, crosses out a name in a book with a gold-tasseled pen and walks away.

The brothers investigate, but are puzzled because the woman isn’t related to the original family they were investigating. They find a gold tassel from the pen and call Ellen, who says they’ve seen about 75 nationwide, and Jo and her crew are investigating.

ZOMG! All the families came over on the same boat in 1912, the Titanic. In this reality, it never sank. It had a close call with an iceberg. The first mate who spotted it in the nick of time—Balthazar. They call him to question him about it. It was meant to sink and he saved it. Why? Because he hated the movie, and the Celine Dion song made him want to kill himself. When Sam asks who is Celine Dion, Balthazar responds that she’s a destitute lounge singer in Quebec, and to keep it that way, please. When Sam asks how he can change history, and Balthazar said there are no rules. Sam accuses him of “Butterfly Effect-ing” history. Dean stops him to say, “Dude. Rule 1. No Kutcher references.”

Balthazar says just small details are different, that they don’t drive an Impala. The brothers look at each other. Balthazar tells them not to ask what an Impala is. He also drops the bomb that Ellen and Jo are alive because of that action. Dean and Sam tell him because of that, 50,000 people will die. He tells them he doesn’t care, that’s the other angel in the dirty trench coat who’s in love with you. He looks at Dean when he says it.

Bobby reasons out that it’s Fate, who spins out the way you die on a piece of pure gold. Sam recognizes the reference and Dean calls him a nerd, which harks back to the first season. The book she has is her “dayrunner of death.” Bobby doesn’t think they can stop Fate. The easiest way would be to get the angel to sink the boat. Dean confesses Ellen and Jo’s fates depend on the boat not sinking. Bobby stares at a picture of him and Ellen all happy in front of the scrapyard and demands that they do not let the angels sink the boat.

They decide to try to save the guy Dean had gone to see as a researcher and almost had a part in his death. When he’s walking away from them, he’s creamed by a bus while the brothers watch, horrified. The bus even has an ad for his law firm. Sam spots the blonde in the window of an unoccupied building. Dean asks what she looked like, and Sam says a librarian. Dean asks, “Your kind of librarian, or my kind of librarian?” Sam replies that she had clothes on. I’m loving the banter. They decide to go “talk” to her. Dean flashes his gun and they step into the building. The clock stops while all the gas knobs are turned on, and time starts again. Dean’s flashlight goes out so he draws out a lighter, and now my Tivo is stuttering. They step through the kitchen doors as Dean’s lighter catches, and the boys are snatched to a park or something by Castiel. Castiel reveals that Fate has it in for the brothers because they averted the apocalypse and rendering her obsolete. He tells them they have to kill her, that Balthazar has a weapon that would do the job. He said they’re going to “Tempt Fate.”

Back at Bobby’s, he lets Ellen know what would happen if the boat sinks. I love seeing Ellen again. He tells her he needs her, and she goes all Han Solo. “I know.”

The boys are jumpy knowing Fate is after them, and as “One Way or Another” by Blondie plays, they almost get nailed by a skateboarder, a bike rider, angry big dogs, jugglers with knives and hatchets ON FIRE. They walk through, Sam with his eyes closed. There’s a guy with a malfunctioning nail gun, a falling AC unit (I think that’s what it was) and then time stops. Castiel walks into the scene, followed by the blonde. She accuses Castiel and the brothers of ruining her life. God had given her a job and she had a script until Castiel threw out the book. He said freedom is better, but she said it’s not freedom, it’s chaos. He tells her that her services are no longer required. She tells him he’s already changed the future, but he can’t change the past. She accuses him of sending Balthazar back to save those people for the souls, 50,000 more for his war machine. She said if he doesn’t go back to sink the boat, she’ll kill his two favorite pets. And if he kills her, her sisters will come at Sam and Dean. While she’s talking to Cas, Balthazar comes up behind her with his weapon, but Cas stops him just in time. “Awkward,” Balthazar says. She orders Castiel to set things right. Before she goes, Blathazar offers to remove the stick from her—She stops him, and he agrees to sink the Titanic. The AC unit crashes to the ground.

The boys wake up in the Impala to “My Heart Will Go On” playing on the radio. Sam says he had the weirdest dream. Dean said his was weirder because it had the Titanic in it. Castiel appears and tells them it wasn’t a dream. He says they went back to sink the Titanic, and Sam is stunned. “You killed 50,000 people for us.” “No I didn’t. They were never born.” Dean asks about Ellen and Jo, and they’re gone. Dean asks if that timeline is just erased. Castiel says yes, but Dean and Sam remember because Castiel wanted them to remember, wanted them to understand Fate because he still believes freedom is the most important thing, worth fighting for. Sam and Dean taught Cas to choose his own destiny. He doesn’t reveal that he sent Balthazar back to do the job.

The brothers feel bad for Bobby, who doesn’t know how good he had it. The ending shot is the photo of Bobby, alone in front of the scrapyard.

I really liked the episode. It had a feel of the older episodes. I'll have to watch again though, when I'm not writing it up!

Monday, April 11, 2011

The 22-episode anime series based on Supernatural is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on July 26, here in the U.S. You can read details of the set here. The main storyline follows seasons 1 and 2, but includes new stories.

Misha Collins tweeted a cast-and-crew photo, possibly from the wrap of season 6.

It seems they've changed the order of upcoming episodes, according to a Zap2it article. SPOILERS Whew. I thought I was nuts, that the preview they showed at the end of the last episode was NOT the same preview they've shown for the last few weeks. I'm still a little confused, between the episode title and the images, but I'm sure all will become clear. :)

Monday, April 4, 2011

Supernatural wrapped up the season already, even without knowing if they're renewed yet. Soo....cliffhanger ending or no? Word is that the CW won't make a decision until closer to the end of the season. Why???

I found this nice little article to share about why to watch Supernatural. Preaching to the choir, I know, but you maybe could pass it on.

Mark Sheppard was at WonderCon and of course someone asked him about Crowley. He said of course they can't get rid of Crowley. Other than McG, I didn't see anyone else listed to attend WonderCon.